Petersburg moves ahead to spur downtown development

Sunday

Jan 3, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 10, 2014 at 1:10 PM

Petersburg City Council recently undertook a rezoning effort that could help spur redevelopment of downtown Petersburg.Council recently voted unanimously to rezone a number of downtown properties to bring them into compliance with the current uses aroun

Petersburg City Council recently undertook a rezoning effort that could help spur redevelopment of downtown Petersburg.

Council recently voted unanimously to rezone a number of downtown properties to bring them into compliance with the current uses around them. Most of the downtown was zoned M-1 light industrial and M-2 heavy industrial. But for many years, that hasn't been the use of most of those same buildings.

The city's planning commission held a meeting Nov. 4 where the rezoning was the topic of a public hearing. The commission voted in favor of the rezoning and council followed through on Nov. 17.

In total, 16 structures were rezoned. Most of the structures front on either River Street or Old Street. The majority of the structures are improved with either 19th or early 20th century buildings.

Many of the properties along Old Street have already been rezoned from M-1 light industrial to B-3 central commercial district.

"The plan with the rezoning was to bring it more into compliance with the area and make it more open for business and residential development," said Joanne Williams, spokeswoman for the city. "This will make it much easier to open a business or a mixed-use structure."

What spurred the rezoning effort was the specific rezoning to make way for the adaptive reuse of 39 River Street for development. 39 River Street is already under consideration for a pending development. That building will likely be a retail commercial with residential above type development.

The city is seeking to encourage other buildings to be redeveloped with commercial businesses on lower floors and potential upper floor residential spaces. The city was the entity that referred the request for rezoning to the Planning Commission.

"The city did this to spawn growth," Williams said.

We applaud the city's proactive movement to rezone parts of the downtown to spur redevelopment. Such an effort should continue and be part of an overall review of the city's rezoning map that could come in a long- term, strategic and comprehensive master plan. But for now, it was a wise initial action on the part of City Council.

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